Ranking the 10 Greatest Recruiting Coaches in NCAA Basketball History

Great NCAA basketball coaches have always made their on-court jobs a lot easier by landing the best recruits. The ability to convince top high-schoolers that their road to basketball success leads through your campus is a vital tool in any coach’s repertoire.

The current master of that art is John Calipari, whose success at Kentucky has rested predominantly on a string of one-and-done freshman stars. This year’s collection of six McDonald’s All-Americans is just the latest notch in Calipari’s belt when it comes to dominating the recruiting scene.

Herein, a closer look at Coach Cal and his place among history’s 10 most effective coaches at bringing the best talent in the country to their collegiate rosters.

9. John Thompson

Size is arguably the most precious commodity to a basketball coach, and no coach could attract top-tier big men like John Thompson.

The man who built the Georgetown program into a national power made his name by winning the epic recruiting battle for Patrick Ewing and never looked back.

In addition to Ewing and his decorated low-post successors (Alonzo Mourning, Dikembe Mutombo), Thompson also snagged one of the most talked-about guards of his generation in Allen Iverson.

Not coincidentally, Thompson's most talented roster was also his most successful, as the 1984 national champs saw Ewing supported by three other future pros—Reggie Williams, David Wingate and Michael Jackson—recruited from nearby Maryland and Virginia.

7. Guy Lewis

A pioneer in recruiting black players in the South, Guy Lewis turned Houston into a major national contender by bringing in Elvin Hayes and Don Chaney in the 1960s.

Only Lew Alcindor and UCLA kept those Cougars from winning two national titles, and Lewis was far from done.

Nearly three decades into his career, Lewis assembled the legendary Phi Slamma Jamma teams at Houston. He recruited Hall of Famers Clyde Drexler and Akeem Olajuwon to lead that group, along with terrific supporting players such as Michael Young.

Even in the relative downturn between his first and second Final Four squads, Lewis managed to bring in super-scorer Otis Birdsong, a four-time NBA All-Star.

6. Steve Fisher

No list of recruiting triumphs would be complete without Michigan’s Fab Five, the superstar collection of freshmen Steve Fisher brought to Michigan.

Chris Webber and his cohorts changed the recruiting landscape forever by proving that one freshman class could turn a program around as soon as it arrived on campus.

The rest of Fisher’s Michigan career was far less successful, though he did land future NBAers Maurice Taylor and Robert Traylor.

However, his more impressive achievement was his career rebirth at San Diego State, where he’s turned a perennial bottom-feeder into a national contender by recruiting the likes of Marcus Slaughter, Kawhi Leonard and Jamaal Franklin.

3. Mike Krzyzewski

Duke’s 2000-01 national title team—featuring Jay Williams, Shane Battier, Mike Dunleavy Jr. and Carlos Boozer—had one of the most star-studded rosters in college hoops history.

They also weren’t even close to the best collection of talent Mike Krzyzewski has assembled in his time as Duke head coach.

Coach K’s back-to-back national champs in 1991 and 1992 featured two of the greatest college players in history in Christian Laettner and Bobby Hurley, plus one of the NBA’s all-time greats in Grant Hill.